Visit Our Sponsors:		Table of Contents: The MailBag News Bytes Distro News News in General Software Announcements The Answer Gang , by The Linux Gazette Answer Gang More 2-Cent Tips Your Own Home Domain With ADSL , by Ray Chan HelpDex , by Shane Collinge Interview with Linux Today's Marty Pitts , by Fernando Ribeiro Correa Internet Printing - Another Way , by Graham Jenkins Parallel Processing on Linux with PVM and MPI , by Rahul U. Joshi Web Portals Bank on Open-Source Infrastructure , by Ned Lilly Finding my computer at home from the outside , by Mark Nielsen Learning Perl, part 3 , by Ben Okopnik So You Like Color !!! (The mysterious ^[[ characters) , by Pradeep Padala Book Review: Networking Printing , by Dustin Puryear Making Smalltalk: OO Thinking , by Jason Steffler A Private Home Network , by Jan Stumpel Speeding Up Your Net Browsing with PDNSD Domain Name Caching , by Sunil Thomas Thonikuzhiyil The Back Page About This Month's Authors Not Linux

Linux Gazette Staff and The Answer Gang

Editor: Michael Orr
Technical Editor: Heather Stern
Senior Contributing Editor: Jim Dennis
Contributing Editors: Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Don Marti

TWDT 1 (gzipped text file) TWDT 2 (HTML file) are files containing the entire issue: one in text format, one in HTML. They are provided strictly as a way to save the contents as one file for later printing in the format of your choice; there is no guarantee of working links in the HTML version.
Linux Gazette, http://www.linuxgazette.com/ This page maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com Copyright © 1996-2001 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.

Send tech-support questions, answers and article ideas to The Answer Gang <linux-questions-only@ssc.com>. Other mail (including questions or comments about the Gazette itself) should go to <gazette@ssc.com>. All material sent to either of these addresses will be considered for publication in the next issue. Please send answers to the original querent too, so that s/he can get the answer without waiting for the next issue.

Unanswered questions might appear here. Questions with answers--or answers only--appear in The Answer Gang, 2-Cent Tips, or here, depending on their content. There is no guarantee that questions will ever be answered, especially if not related to Linux.

Before asking a question, please check the Linux Gazette FAQ to see if it has been answered there.

• I've downloaded the ISO file. Now what do I do with it? I've burned a CD and it won't boot with it.
• Fetchmail question
• nuovo progetto
• syslog-ng
• rebooting using rsh command
• query
• Defining Keyboard Shortcuts
• upgrade2.2.14 to 2.4 kernel documention
• Linux Sockets Stuck in FIN_WAIT
• CD-Writing with an ATAPI CDR Mini-HOWTO

I've downloaded the ISO file. Now what do I do with it? I've burned a CD and it won't boot with it.

To trim it down considerably, he has tried Nero Burning software but couldn't make sense of it, and the image that seems to result doesn't work. YaST2 booted from floppy gets as far as reaching for the CD, then continues to complain that the CD isn't valid.

Usually the Gang would suggest a rescue disk - our perennial favorites wouldn't help, they don't have cdrecord aboard, but you could try muLinux (http://mulinux.nevalabs.org/) boot that from floppy, and use the Linux software on it to mount up your DOS filesystem, then cdrecord according to the normal HOWTO to burn the SuSE CD. I have no idea if it would work though it seems worth a shot.

Would some kind soul out there who lives in both worlds point us to a reliable CD burning app for Windows, along with some fairly simple instructions? We'd be glad to let you put the article in the Gazette if it will help enough potential Linux'ers out there. -- Heather

Fetchmail question

I read Ben Okopnik's article in the February issue of Linux Gazette titled

No More Spam! (a "procmail"-based solution with tips on "fetchmail" and "mutt")

and I tried implementing some of his suggestions. My problem seems to be this: While fetchmail will get my e-mail, and pass it off to procmail, which delivers it to a designated file, I can't seem to read the e-mail with kmail. I've set my designated file as a local mailbox for kmail to read, but when I try to read it using kmail I get 1 of 2 behaviors:

1. kmail ignores the e-mail in the local mailbox
2. kmail nukes the contents of the local mailbox, and does not transfer the contents to my kmail inbox.

I tried setting up kmail to read from the local mailbox with the following lock file options:
mutt dotlocked
mutt dotlocked priveledged
Procmail lockfile
FCNTL
None

Any of the above will cause either behavior 1) or 2).

Anyway, I'm hoping you might be able to help me figure out how to read my local mailbox with kmail.

--Rod
P.s. Included is a snapshot of my kmail configuration for reading the local mailbox into my inbox. Hopefully, it will be of some use to you for diagnosing my problem.
P.p.s. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on this.
P.p.p.s. Here are the configuration files for the various utilities: (I blanked my password in the .fetchmailrc file in this e-mail, for security reasons )

• .fetchmailrc
• .procmailrc
• The top part of kmailrc, with the reference to my password for yahoo, blanked out

nuovo progetto

Let him know what you think, folks. For my own part, we could still use a wordprocessor that actually works... -- Heather

syslog-ng

Hi, I'm fighting with syslog-ng, trying to centralize the logs of all a network to a log server. Till now, I'm justing testing it between two machines ... I've already been on it a long time and still no result, simply nothing appears in the final log on the logserver ... I've attached the syslog-ng.conf of the client and the server's one too.

You must know that for the server's source, I've already tried to enter parameters (I mean an ip and a port) but it doesn't work either so at the moment, I'm trying to use the defaults. The same thing for the client ...
Can you help me on this?
Thanks

• client.conf
• logserver.conf

rebooting using rsh command

Any of you gentle readers with experience in this kind of clustering, if you have any idea what it might be, then feel free to lend a hand. We'll publish your answer here. -- Heather

query

Hii james, this is mehul from india...

need to know if i can control bandwidth on a particular interface using ipchains or any other utilities in linux... basically, ill have a multi-homed linux workstation and i want to limit bandwidth on one interface to 512kbps... is that possible?

T&R
mehul

Defining Keyboard Shortcuts

I would like to define keyboard shortcuts not specific to a Window Manager. I have read documentation on xmodmap, but the information I have found only talks about and show examples of changing key actions to another pre-defined action. That is, being able to change the caps lock key to function as an escape key. How would I go about assigning a command to a lctrl + F1 key code?

The ultimate use for this is to help a fellow LUG member. He wants to be able to assign text strings to "hot keys" whereby the text string would be copied to the window he is working in. He wants to be able to save the text strings as he is working so that they can be used in other session; and have the ability to delete or change these text strings. I can proably figure out a script to do this, but I am stuck on defining the keyboard shortcut.

Thanks

Daniel S. Washko

upgrade2.2.14 to 2.4 kernel documention

hello,

is there any kernel upgrade from 2.2.1# to 2.4 how-to 's. I have upgraded the kernel using a general how-to and I have problems mounting the vfat partitions by getting the error "invalid major and minor numbers". I know the way the system deals with special device files has changed at 2.4. Also the "eth0" ethernet adapter is not being recognised. Any help in finding good documentation for this process would be greatly appreciated.

mark taylor

Linux Sockets Stuck in FIN_WAIT

On our project if an established client socket connection on a remote chassis is suddenly terminated (e.g., the chassis is powered off), the socket connection on the local chassis changes from ESTABLISHED to FIN_WAIT1. If we then try to restart our application on the local chassis, it does not work because the socket connection is stuck in a FIN_WAIT1. After 5-10 minutes the socket connection stuck in FIN_WAIT1 clears itself and we can successfully restart our application on the local chassis, but this wait is too long.

Do any of you know how to expedite the process of clearing FIN_WAITs on a Linux/UNIX chassis under these conditions? The only we can get them to clear is to either wait 10 minutes or perform a chassis reboot (sync; shutdown -r now). Is there a system call that can be used to tell the operating system to close/delete/clean-up/remove all socket connections immediately?

The only thing I have run across so far is to possibly make a kernel change (e.g., change #defines in .../include/net/tcp.h), or set a socket option which causes the sockets to close/clean-up faster. Note: these changes may be risky if we shorten the timeouts too much.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken Ramseyer

CD-Writing with an ATAPI CDR Mini-HOWTO

Hi
I've read the articles from issue 57 of the Linux gazette, but am unable to get my cd-rw to work. I don't think I am managing to emulate scsi correctly, although I have followed the things sugested. I have a sony cd-rw (CRX 145E ATAPI) and run mandrake 7.0, I also have a iomega 100Mb zip drive on hdb, a dvd-rom on hdc and the cd-rw is on hdd. This is what I've done and what the comp says:

In /etc/rc.d/rc.local added

/sbin/insmod ide-scsi

In /etc/conf.modules added

alias scd0 srmod
alias scsi_hostadapter ide-scsi
options ide-cd ignore=hdd

(also tried replacing srmod with sr_mod)

In /etc/lilo.conf added

append="hdd=ide-scsi"

then in console typed

lilo (and tried /sbin/lilo)

then rebooted, then dmesg gives at the end:

hdb:<3>ide-scsi: hdb: unsupported command in request queue (0)
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:40 (hdb), sector 0
unable to read partition table
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
scsi : 1 host.
Vendor: IOMEGA    Model: ZIP 100           Rev: 14.A
Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
Detected scsi removable disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sda : READ CAPACITY failed.
sda : status = 0, message = 00, host = 0, driver = 28
sda : extended sense code = 2
sda : block size assumed to be 512 bytes, disk size 1GB.
sda:scsidisk I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
unable to read partition table

For some reason I can't get the machine to emulate scsi on anything other than hdb. cdrecord -scanbus only lists the zip drive too. The /sbin/insmod ide-scsi comand also stops the zip drive from working. Have you any ideas as to what might be going wrong?

Many thanks for any advice you can offer
Louise

• Sci-Linux Project has a listed e-mail address ..
• Navigation...
• Mailto URL error in LG Mailbag (followup)
• Heather Stern
• The Answer Gang

Sci-Linux Project has a listed e-mail address ..

Thanks, Manoj, we'd love to see your article! -- Heather

Navigation...

Once upon a time this was the case, but folks wrote in, saying that having that main navbar as well as the links within the TAG area was a bit confusing... they often hit "next article" when they meant "next TAG message". But, we can try adding back in only the main Index, and see how that works. -- Heather

Mailto URL error in LG Mailbag (followup)

I'm glad you're using mailto's that include the TAG address. The problem is the URL construction was incorrect.

It should be an equals sign (=) after the cc parameter. A quick run through sed should fix this before you get too many messages pointing out the error.

If there's any way to add the subject, you could make the URLs look like this:

mailto:user@domain?cc=linux-questions-only@ssc.com&subject=Re:%20SUBJECT

Note that the subject has to go through a filter that replaces spaces with the hex code "%20" to keep the URL legal. In perl, I'd do this:

$mailto_subject =~ s/ /%20/g;

You can quickly test the functionality of a mailto URL by typing variations directly into the address/URL box of the target browser and see if it calls the mail client as you intended.

Tony

Thanks, Tony, you win the AnswerBubble for the month. I like it when folks not only nail us for a bug (that one was me, I'll go fix the script so it'll be right next time ... but also send us Tip grade material about fixing it. We're trying it this month. I'm sure that our readers will let us know if there's any problems -- Heather

Heather Stern

I just want to say thank you.

Her greeting in The Answer Gang is beautiful. I'm a relative newbie to Linux (It took me a week of reading and playing to compile a kernel that would find my NICs). I understand the open source idea, and love it. I deal in 2 other fields where this idea (in a general sense) applies. Emergency Medical Services where we share ideas, issues, and solutions, not for money, but for the knowledge of helping others. Also in restoring old cars, Things are learned, forgotten, learned again, and most importantly past on. By sharing, we (Linux users) end up with a better app or method.

Again, Thank you

Remember, there are people out there who really appreciate the work that is done.

- Mike Gargiullo

The Answer Gang

In Issue 64 you invite Ray Taylor to join The Answer Gang. How would one do that? Is it like a mailing list open to everyone? Can anyone help?

TAG is run like a mailing list in reverse. The public sends in questions, and the subscribers are the answerers. To join, send e-mail to tag-request@ssc.com with "subscribe tag me@mysite.com" in the message body. Then just jump in whenever you have something to say. At the end of the month, Heather selects some of the messages for publishing. -- Mike

• SSH article
• Mean Thoughts on the Linux Router Project

SSH article

In the article on ssh, scp, and sftp in the March issue, there is an important area that isn't covered: client/server compatibility.

If you're just doing a basic ssh (to get a remote shell), you're using a standard SSH protocol and any program named "ssh" is likely to work with any remote system that offers a service it calls "ssh."

But scp and sftp are not standard protocols. If you run the scp program from openssh against a remote system that's running an original ssh server, it will not work. (And when I learned this the hard way, it was very hard indeed: the error message isn't "this server doesn't implement this scp protocol." It is, for reasons that took a day of debugging to figure out, "invalid file descriptor"!

Mean Thoughts on the Linux Router Project

[Mike] We received several complaints about the article, feeling that it attacked the LRP unfairly. Dave Cinege, the creator of the LRP, was going to write a response addressing the inaccuracies he felt were in the article, but he did not have time to finish his letter by press time. I encourage readers with an interest in routing to follow the links above to the projects' home pages and decide for themselves if the LRP and its offspring are right for them.

Regarding Oxygen, EigerStein and 2.9.8, Dave writes:

They are derivatives of stable releases of LRP, which is currently 2.9.8. I have been creating a new OS similar to LRP for quite some time now. Many things have come out of this are a new multi-packaging system (standard?) that is more powerful then rpm or deb, yet not tied to any specific OS.

Regarding the 'ip' command, he writes:

ip allows you to control the extended routing features of 2.2 and 2.4, IE multiple routing tables. Ifconfig still works for the primary routing table and interface configuration. ip can replace ifconfig, but ifconfig is still the known standard.

A few letters questioned LG's editorial policy in allowing this article to be published. LG's policy is pretty open. If an article is about Linux, contains hard facts or cultural value (e.g., humorous articles, cartoons and articles about Linux VIPs), covers a topic relevant to a significant portion of the readership, is not an advertisement in disguise, and would still be relevant several months from now, we'll probably publish it. There are borderline cases, and this was one of them.

LG does not have a technical review board to screen every article, although I do send a few questionable articles to The Answer Gang for comment. You, our readers, are LG's technical review board, and usually this system works very well. 99% of LG's articles are published without complaint.

In any case, please remember this article describes one person's experience with certain routing programs. It's not meant to be gospel, in spite of the letter I received that said, "But newbies will read it and think it's gospel!" That's not how it works. If you want gospel, read several people's articles and compare them with your own experience.

Another thing this article does is raise the question, just because we can use Linux in a wide variety of routing situations, should we? Are you choosing a Linux router because it's the most appropriate solution for the task, or simply because "we're a Linux-only shop"? Even if the article failed to present LRP in a fair light, these are still questions worth asking.

As always, if you have any comments about an article, whether good or bad, send them to LG and we will forward them to the author.

"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Contents: Distro News News in General Software Announcements

Selected and formatted by Michael Conry and Mike Orr

Submitters, send your News Bytes items in PLAIN TEXT format. Other formats may be rejected without reading. You have been warned! A one- or two-paragraph summary plus URL gets you a better announcement than an entire press release.

Linux 2.4.3

Linux 2.4.3 is out. See the changelog or find a kernel mirror.

Linux Journal and Embedded Linux Journal

The April issue of Linux Journal is on newsstands now. This issue focuses on Internet/Intranet. Click here to view the table of contents, or here to subscribe. All articles through December 1999 are available for public reading at http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/mags.html. Recent articles are available on-line for subscribers only at http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/.

The March/April issue of Embedded Linux Journal was mailed to subscribers in February. Click here to view the table of contents. Professionals working in the embedded field in the US, Canada or Mexico can get a free subscription by clicking here. Paid subscriptions to other countries are also available.

Caldera

Caldera Systems have announced the open beta availability of its new OpenLinux server product, code-named "Project 42," and an agreement with Lutris to ship the Enhydra Open Source Java/XML application server with the new version. The product is based on the new Linux 2.4 kernel and targets OEMs and VARs. Project 42 incorporates a secure Web server, a file and print server, and a set of network infrastructure servers, including DHCP, DNS, and firewall.

Caldera and SCO have unveiled Open UNIX 8, incorporating support for Linux applications. Open UNIX 8 will maintain compatibility and continuity with the UnixWare 7 operating system while providing a complete Linux environment. In addition, the product will incorporate support for the execution of unmodified Linux Intel Architecture binaries.

Debian

Debian has chosen Ben Collins as the new Debian Project Leader (DPL).

Progeny Debian

Progeny Linux Systems have announced that Release Candidate 1 of Progeny Debian is now available for download. Progeny Debian is based on woody, the current testing version of Debian, and made by a team of leading Debian developers. Company CEO Ian Murdock, has said that he expects any changes after RC1 to be bug-fixes and cosmetic improvements

Features of RC1 include: graphical installation and configuration tools, a GNOME interface for debconf, improved hardware detection and USB support, optional migration to GRUB, and automated multiple installations.

Software included in RC1 includes:

• Kernel 2.2.18 (2.4 optional)
• XFree 86 4.0.2.
• glibc 2.2.
• Netscape 4.76 and Mozilla 0.7.
• GNU parted
• Open SSH.
• GRUB 0.5.96.1

For more information about Progeny Debian, visit www.progeny.com.

SuSE

SuSE Linux have released apparently very positive news about the future of Linux in Germany. A poll commissioned by SuSE showed that 56 percent of the interviewed PC users have heard of Linux and ten percent already use the alternative operating system at home or at work. This statistic indicates that, in terms of distribution, Linux is second to Windows. Furthermore, 23 percent of the computer users consider switching to Linux when upgrading their equipment. This information was obtained from a survey recently conducted by the market research institute TNS EMNID, Bielefeld, Germany.

It also has KDE2, XFree86 4.0.2 and SaX2, the expanded graphical configuration tool which ensures a simple and secure setup of supported graphics cards, is also a new feature. An improved version of MOL (Mac on Linux), the virtual machine used to start MacOS in Linux, complements the distribution.

The range of supported IBM computers with PowerPC processors has been considerably enlarged. SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC Edition now runs on IBM Power3 machines. The possibility to use up to 3 GB RAM and an expanded multi-processor support provided by Kernel 2.4 make SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC Edition especially attractive for IBM pSeries 640. Thus, SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC Edition is the first Linux solution that supports these computers "out of the box".

The package includes 6 CDs, a 500-page manual and 60 days installation support for EURO 49.00.

Lion worm (DNS/BIND security alert!)

Anyone using BIND should be aware that there is a new worm on the loose. The Lion worm attacks certain versions of BIND (the domain name server program). The Sans Institute have plenty of information on the worm, and indicate that Bind versions 8.2, 8.2-P1, 8.2.1, 8.2.2-Px are vulnerable. BIND 8.2.3-REL has been reported as not being vulnerable (this information is preliminary and potentially incomplete). The BIND vulnerability is the TSIG vulnerability that was reported back on January 29, 2001. If you believe your system has been compromised, the SANS Institute has a program Lionfind that detects it. Now is a good time to get the latest version of BIND from your distribution vendor, run named as non-root, or switch to a BIND alternative.

It is also worth looking at general security issues. To get an idea of how security should be done, check out the results of the Honeynet forensic challenge. Candidates downloaded the partition images of a compromised Linux system and had to find out "who, what, when, where, how". The results show how professionals go about doing these things, but also how difficult and time consuming recovering from a compromise can be. The lesson is "BE PREPARED!"

Upcoming conferences and events

Listings courtesy Linux Journal. See LJ's Events page for the latest goings-on.

LINUX Business Expo	April 2-5, 2001 Chicago, IL http://www.linuxbusinessexpo.com
Free Web ROI Seminar by Akami Technologies	April 3, 2001 Seattle, WA http://www.akamai.com/roitime/
Linux Expo, Madrid	April 4-5, 2001 Madrid, Spain http://www.linuxexpomadrid.com/EN/home
Lugfest IV	April 21-22, 2001 Simi Valley, CA http://www.lugfest.org
Linux Expo Road Show	April 23-27, 2001 Various Locations http://www.linux-expo.com
Linux Africa 2001	April 24-26, 2001 Johannesburg, South Africa http://www.aitecafrica.com
Open Source Development Network Summit	April 30 - May 1, 2001 Austin, TX http://osdn.com/conferences/handhelds/
Linux for Industrial Applications 3rd Braunschweiger Linux-Tage	May 4-6, 2001 Braunschweig, Germany http://braunschweiger.linuxtage.de/industrie/
Linux@Work Europe 2001	May 8 - June 15, 2001 Various Locations http://www.ltt.de/linux_at_work.2001
Linux Expo, São Paulo	May 9-10, 2001 São Paulo, Brazil http://www.linux-expo.com
SANS 2001	May 13-20, 2001 Baltimore, MD http://www.sans.org/SANS2001.htm
7th Annual Applied Computing Conference	May 14-17, 2001 Santa Clara, CA http://www.annatechnology.com/annatech/HomeConf2.asp
Linux Expo, China	May 15-18, 2001 Shanghai, China http://www.linux-expo.com
SITI International Information Technologies Week OpenWorld Expo 2001	May 22-25, 2001 Montréal, Canada http://www.mediapublik.com/en/
Strictly e-Business Solutions Expo	May 23-24, 2001 Minneapolis, MN http://www.strictlyebusinessexpo.com
Linux Expo, Milan	June 6-7, 2001 Milan, Italy http://www.linux-expo.com
USENIX Annual Technical Conference	June 25-30, 2001 Boston, MA http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix01
PC Expo	June 26-29, 2001 New York, NY www.pcexpo.com
Internet World Summer	July 10-12, 2001 Chicago, IL http://www.internetworld.com
O'Reilly Open Source Convention	July 23-27, 2001 San Diego, CA http://conferences.oreilly.com
10th USENIX Security Symposium	August 13-17, 2001 Washington, D.C. http://www.usenix.org/events/sec01/
HunTEC Technology Expo & Conference Hosted by Hunstville IEEE	August 17-18, 2001 Huntsville, AL URL unkown at present
Computerfest	August 25-26, 2001 Dayton, OH http://www.computerfest.com
LinuxWorld Conference & Expo	August 27-30, 2001 San Francisco, CA http://www.linuxworldexpo.com
The O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference	September 17-20, 2001 Washington, DC http://conferences.oreilly.com/p2p/call_fall.html
Linux Lunacy Co-Produced by Linux Journal and Geek Cruises Send a Friend LJ and Enter to Win a Cruise!	October 21-28, 2001 Eastern Caribbean http://www.geekcruises.com
LinuxWorld Conference & Expo	October 30 - November 1, 2001 Frankfurt, Germany http://www.linuxworldexpo.de/linuxworldexpo/index.html
5th Annual Linux Showcase & Conference	November 6-10, 2001 Oakland, CA http://www.linuxshowcase.org/
Strictly e-Business Solutions Expo	November 7-8, 2001 Houston, TX http://www.strictlyebusinessexpo.com
LINUX Business Expo Co-located with COMDEX	November 12-16, 2001 Las Vegas, NV http://www.linuxbusinessexpo.com
15th Systems Administration Conference/LISA 2001	December 2-7, 2001 San Diego, CA http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa2001

LinuxFocus

LinuxFocus is a Linux webzine that's been around for years, but may not be familiar to some LG readers. Unlike LG, which is essentially in English with some foreign-language translations, LF was founded with the goal of providing non-English speakers with "enough [Linux] information in their native language that they can join in the Linux community." Currently, seven languages are fully supported and four more are partially supported. Translations happen both ways: there are currently six French articles waiting to be adopted by English translators. LG fully supports LF and wishes it success.

NetworX and AMD Supply Cluster to Boeing

The Boeing Company is using a Linux NetworX cluster powered by 96 AMD Athlon processors. The system, designed as a high performance cluster, is being used by Boeing Space & Communications in Huntington Beach, Calif. to run computational fluid dynamics applications in support of the Delta IV program. Boeing Delta IV engineers tested multiple processor platforms at Linux NetworX facilities prior to buying the cluster, and selected the AMD Athlon for its price and performance advantages.

Linux NetworX has also announced the development of LinuxBIOS for the Alpha platform. In conjunction with the LinuxBIOS Open Source project, Linux NetworX has replaced SRM firmware on the Alpha platform with a Linux-based BIOS. Users will now have the ability to boot to Linux directly out of the ROM on the motherboard.

Python Software Foundation & Python Cookbook

ActiveState have announced involvement in the launch of a collaborative programming book, the Python Cookbook, with O'Reilly & Associates. The Cookbook will be a repository of reviewed Python recipes that have been contributed by the Python community for the community. It will be freely available for download. For details please go to the website. Activestate will also be a founding co-sponsor of the new Python Software Foundation (PSF). The PSF's is to provide educational, legal and financial resources to the Python community. More information is available in the full press release

Penguin Computing Selects Arkeia Backup for Linux Servers

Knox Software Corp. have announced that the company has entered into a reseller agreement with Penguin Computing Inc. Under the agreement, Penguin Computing will now offer Knox's flagship network backup application, Arkeia, for bundling with Penguin's pre-configured custom Linux servers.

IBM, Biotech and Linux

For more information on IBM's Linux developments, refer to their website.

OEone Teams Up with EarthLink

OEone and EarthLink are working together to integrate EarthLink's Linux based Internet access software with OEone's Internet-computer operating environment platform.

TeamLinux and Muze to Expand Relationship

TeamLinux is to expand its relationship with Muze Inc. to provide hardware support and service for its existing and future kiosk customers. This new multi-year contract provides for TeamLinux to be the premiere provider for all hardware and service. Muze will continue to provide its proprietary software and be the first level of contact for any Muze system issues.

Sair Linux & GNU Certification

Agenda Computing Sell Linux PDA

California-based Agenda Computing are launching a pure Linux PDA (personal digital assistant) to challenge Palm in the war for market share. Each Agenda VR3 and VR3r is loaded with unique software and hardware features like 16MB of Flash memory, which eliminates the problem of data loss associated with RAM-based units. It also supports 7 languages, is e-mail compatible, and will send a memo or message to a printer by wireless infrared transfer.

Keyspan Ships 4-port USB Serial Adapter for Linux

Linux Links

Galleo is a mobile multimedia communicator. It's a nifty-looking PDA with e-mail, web and music capabilities. Unfortunately, their web site is not so nifty: I can't get the menu buttons to show. So click on the Galleo image or try this link to their follow this link to get to the products page and use the text links from there, and click on "Virtual Tour". (Requires Javascript and who knows what [Shockwave?] for the movie.)

The Duke of URL has the following to offer:

• Review of Trustix Secure Linux 1.2
• Linux Buyer's Guide #9
• Tribes 2 Linux Preview
• TurboLinux Workstation Pro 6.1 Review
• A Beginner's Guide to Linux Apps

Some links from the folks at ZDNet's Anchordesk UK

• Linux is too much: a look at how big Linux distributions packed with thousands of apps are likely to leave the average desktop user dazed and confused.
• Two looks at the new kernel: Linux 2.4: It's here! Now what? and Much ado about kernels
• How to succeed at selling free software
• Why Linux is like pizza
• Nautilus: here today. Eazel: gone tomorrow?

debianhelp.org offers, um, help on Debian.

Linux Valley, an Italian portal for the Linux operating system, has been updated. It offers a range of interactive and community services.

Microsoft says Linux is a threat to intellectual-property rights. Linux Journal disagrees.

Paranoid Backup is designed to "work with cheap tape drives and cheap tapes without shoe-shining or losing data; to never overwrite old backups; and to use as few tapes as possible."

The Pentagon's research agency is preparing to demonstrate a soldier's radio designed to provide mobile communications among individual troops on the battlefield. The network will be based on the Linux operating system. Courtesy Slashdot.

The Linux Expo Birmingham 2001 web site is now online. For information on other Linux-Expo events, consult their website.

OLinux have an interview with Rick Lehrbaum from LinuxDevices.com. OLinux are also currently looking for an investor or a company willing to translate and promote OLinux around the world.

Doug Eubanks has put together a new Linux/RoadRunner help site. He aims to consolidate the various threads in the field.

An article on Microsoft's complicated licensing terms for enterprise users. The title for the Slashdot link is, "Microsoft Turning Screws on Customers".

Tom's Root/Boot Updated

Tom Oehser has released a minor, but recommended, update to tomsrtbt. Current version is now 1.7.218. Get it from: http://www.toms.net/rb/. This is something everybody should have on hand in case you someday have to boot from an emergency floppy.

AbsoluteX Now Available for Download

Loki Games

Loki Software has announced an agreement with developer-driven computer and videogame publisher Gathering of Developers to bring the hit PC games Rune and Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2 to Linux early this year. Testers are required, register here.

Furthermore, in a race to GPL freedom, Loki Software, Inc. are releasing the latest in their line of open source projects: a complete set of end-user and developer tools for managing software releases.

• Setup 1.5.8 includes support for Loki's new XML product database. This database allows you to determine if your product is complete or corrupt.
• Loki Update Tool 1.0.6 allows quick and easy updates of any Loki software.
• Loki Uninstall Tool 1.0.3 allows anyone to quickly and easily remove any Loki software they install.
• Loki Patch Tools 1.0.1 will allow you to build patches for any project, complete with pre/post install scripts.

"Emerald Isle" Ispell

GARLIC Version 1.1 Released

The FIEN Group to Sell Teamware Office for Linux in the U.S.

Teamware Group , a Fujitsu subsidiary, and The FIEN Group, a Southern California-based technology consulting organisation have signed a partner agreement according to which The FIEN group will sell Teamware Office 5.3 for Linux groupware to customers across the USA. Teamware Office 5.3 for Linux includes facilities for electronic mail, time and resource scheduling, discussion groups as well as document storage and retrieval. The famous Teamware Office groupware suite has been in the market since 1989 and was ported to Linux platform in spring 2000.

Opera to be released as ad-ware

Opera Software has announced that the final release of its Linux browser will be available for free to all users. The free version has full functionality but contains banner ads. If you don't want banner ads, you can register your free copy for $39, or buy the adless version for the same price. If you are interested in this product, Opera 5 for Linux beta 7 is now out.

Open Motif Now Supports Latest Linux 2.4 Kernel Distributions

Integrated Computer Solutions has released an updated version of Open Motif Everywhere. This new release officially incorporates Open Group Patch 3 and Patch 4 into the Open Motif release. These patches include bug fixes and updates to the Motif libraries, clients and the demo source code. RPM (version 4) are also provided for both Red Hat Linux 7, SuSE Linux 7.1 and other distributions using glibc 2.2. The latest ICS Open Motif binary and source packages are available for free download at ICS's Motif Community site, the MotifZone. They are also available for $29.95 on ICS's Open Motif Everywhere distribution CD that can be purchased through the ICS Store.

Kaspersky Lab Introduces the New Version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux

Kaspersky Lab have announced the release of the new version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux (3.0 Build 135.3). This new version adds several features, including installer support for different Linux distributions, and a ready-made solution to integrate centralised virus filtering for Postfix e-mail gateways. The new version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus is available for download from the Kaspersky Lab Web site. All registered users of previous versions of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Linux may upgrade to the new version free of charge.

Other software

Rob Pitman has released a LGPL licensed software package that provides a "graphical user interface" between a Java application and an ASCII terminal. The package emulates the API of the Java AWT and the Swing toolkit. It provides "graphical" widgets such as Frames, Dialogs, Labels, TextFields and Buttons. One can design the GUI of an application using any Java IDE and then port it to use a text interface with little work. You can get more information about the package at: http://www.pitman.co.za/projects/charva/index.html.

Mahogany Version 0.62 is out. Mahogany is an OpenSource(TM) cross-platform mail and news client. It supports a range of protocols and standards (POP3, IMAP4, MIME, etc.,), secure communications via SSL, and can be extended using its built-in Python interpreter and loadable modules.

TUXIA specialises in embedded Linux software suites for Internet and Information appliances. TASTE (TUXIA Appliance Synthesis Technology Enabled) is a solution based on Linux Kernel 2.4 with an embedded Mozilla browser and other functionalities, that can be integrated into any hardware platform.

Copyright © 2001, Michael Conry and the Editors of Linux Gazette.
Copying license http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html
Published in Issue 65 of Linux Gazette, April 2001

"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Contents:

¶: Greetings From Heather Stern

? --or--

What's this word?

Unable to Install Linux

DNS and telnet

Help on LILO stopping at LI

How can you do a recursive search to find broken symbolic links?

BIOS passwords - Bane of my existance

telecommunication in a hospital --or--

Making the Connection

Setup of Microsoft Outlook Express 5 for Sending of Clear Text

icons

Corrupt Tar Archive

masquerade in sendmail is broken.

neighbour table overflow

VIDEO CARD

fat versus inodes

Installing Linux without cdrom

Installing RedHat 7.0 and a driver for the Chipset Cirrus CL-GD5436

cd-writing mini-howto

These has been bugging me for a while now --or--

Reading the logs

Linux Newbie Frustration --or--

So many users, So few POP accounts

script

Linux Box on windows

HD bad clusters --or--

Take a Breath!

about the adaptation.

Changing the "login-sequence" in Linux?

Linux, X, Dell Video Card

sendmail

about a stubborn mount error

Here is a very stupid question ... --or--

How do I choose?

I was wondering

Greetings from Heather Stern

It's that stormy month of the year again, when people expect us to be silly in print.

I feel silly for saying this but it seems like we have to every month:

1. There is no guarantee that questions will ever be answered, especially if not related to Linux.
2. HTML attachments drive us nuts...

ICANN expressed a desire to make a foolish mess of the entire internet. I wrote "An Open Letter to ICANN" which has been published in Linux Journal recently: http://www.linuxjournal.com/articles/conversations/0022.html

While we're thinking of messes, and Easter coming up, how about cute fluffy bunnies? I cleaned up the ol' home office a bit. I think Dust Puppy (http://www.userfriendly.org) can find a girlfriend named Dust Bunny if he tries hard enough.

As you hopefully know by now this is a Linux magazine and we normally only answer Linux questions. But, it's the silly month, so once again with that cardboard box thread that snuck in ...

And finally, something I've been messing with that makes us all continue to look foolish for using Linux. How can we call ourselves a desktop system when all the word processors suck? Oh yeah. We don't. We just call it an operating system, apps are for distros. Well, they still need to work on it.

The first thing you may wonder is why would Ms. My Box Is More Productive Without Producticity Software even care, anyway? Well, it so happens that a friend of mine, who isn't computer oriented in the slightest, wanted a resumé and of course since we're close, she asks me. No problem, I think. It's just an rpm -i or an apt-get install away. Right.

For a more positive view, see Tony's telecommunications article this issue.

Don't believe me, eh? Well let's start at the top. WordPerfect is time bomb ware. Their idea of "for personal use" includes dying at 90 days so you have to go get a registration key, allegedly free. In my old shareware days I always avoided timebombs. You never know if they might also try to take your documents with them or something. It's a shame because I always liked their DOS software. I may buy it someday, when I need it for myself, after all, with my consulting biz I guess I don't count as personal use anyway. But I resist - my principles don't call for supporting time bombs. Grr.

I tried StarOffice a few months ago. It shows many of the worst features of having originally been a port from the windows version via some translation library. Its "everything lives inside the Staroffice Window" mold was one of the GUI features I was glad to get away from when I left Windows behind, and its printer configuration is evil and broken. Okay, when it finally works it's rather cool to have numerous Avery papers selectable in the dialog so you can do labels and index cards. But, it's actually easier to set up a printer with plain old lpr and magicfilter. Yuck.

Applix might be okay. I dunno, I was in a hurry, and wanted something a bit smaller. I guess I just hate the idea that I have to download a whole suite just to get one part.

I think I have LyX installed, I try that. I do. It doesn't do a number of things that need doing. I tried to do spring margins and it has its own ideas how wide to make the table. This will never work.

The SIAG people have loose parts. Their word processor is called Pathetic Writer. I tried it... and they're right. If I recall correctly Wordpad has more features. Sigh.

How about Abiword? Those abisuite guys have their head on straight, let's try it. So happens Terry already has it on his box since we put Progeny on his desk. He tries to use it for one page reports and growls at it because it can't deal with tabs very well. Hmmm... anyway, just an ssh session over there and access it via X, right? Wrong! It whines that a font is missing. That's insane. Betel has the most complete font collection in the house, since it's setup to be our TTF font server...

Fine. Install it locally. (I have to get the whole suite. Oh well. Get a soda, come back.) One SuSE style rpm i coming up! (wave magic wand) uh, this doesn't load at all, even to pop up with the complaint. No error message in the xterm window, nothing. Fume.

Well, let's try the K office then. Kword coming up. Installs sweet enough. Even runs. (Yay!) Can't do tables even though it has buttons for it. Now, we are talking about everyone's favorite use for spring margins, putting the dates of your last employ all the way to the right, and since almost nothing has proper spring margins, can't do it without tables. At least it does those long beautiful bars, which I had figured would need tables. Even when I use just plain white space to push things to the end, the thing is iffy about whether they show up over there. If I change the font anywhere on the line its metrics are a scramble and things fall off entirely.

On the bright side, its preview feature generates very clean Postscript, not yet encapsulated. So, being the programmer type that I am, I let Kword do what it could, and improved the rest in text mode, previewing directly in ghostview.

One shouldn't have to be a programmer to whip together a friend's job hunting paperwork. It takes us back to the old days, when a CP/M box could be a decent terminal for a brighter Postscript printer, if you slipped it a sneaky enough program.

Oddly enough if I had just thrown it together in HTML it would have been pretty quick. But that would have been in a plain old text editor too -- since the state of the art in WYSIWYG editors for HTML is about the same. Bluefish and August seem to have them beat all over the place. I think I like Bluefish better, it has a feel very similar to HTMLedPro which I used when I used to live more closely with that other operating system.

If the Dot Com Fallout has made your company foolishly let you go, at least the Linux world has room for you. You can check out Linux Journal's Career Center (http://www.linuxjournal.com/employ), Geekfinder (http://www.geekfinder.com), the Sysadmin's Guild (SAGE) Job Center (http://www.usenix.org/sage/jobs/sage-jobs.html), or pay attention to your local area papers for when major high tech Job Fairs are in your area, so you can go to them. There are also some really generic job sites like Dice.Com (http://www.dice.com) or MonsterBoard (http://www.monsterboard.com). If you hate the corporate mold, check out some of the project offers at SourceXchange (http://www.sourcexchange.com) or Collab.Net (http://www.collab.net). Or put up your consulting shingle by listing yourself at Linuxports (http://www.linuxports.com) and getting listed into a few search engines.

Me, I don't have to worry about getting into search engines, do I? Have a happy April!

What's this word?

From dana gillen

Answered By Jonathan Markevich, Chris Gianakopoulos, Breen Mullins, Huibert Alblas, Heather Stern

Can you tell me what PCMICIA stands for? Thanks!

[Jonathan] Sure. "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms". (You have an extra "I" in there)

Seriously, I believe it's "Personal Computer Memory Card Inter...   ..." Uh, I forget the "A", thus proving the previous statement.

However, they've since ditched the obscure acronym and now call it "PC Card", since "Memory" was very rarely what it was about.

[Chris G.] The "A", I believe, stands for association.

[Breen] PCMCIA = Personal Computer Memory Card International Association

A good resource for ATDA (All Those Dratted Acronyms) is the Babel File:

http://www.geocities.com/ikind_babel/babel/babel.html

HTH.

[Huibert] Hi, my first post to Tag (here it comes

In Gnome is a litle utility called Gdict (Foot->utilities->Gdict) If you go to Settings->preferences->Server->Database you can select V.E.R.A. (Virual Entity of Relevant Acronyms) It's great for looking up Acronyms (Accept the 'wrong' or funny ones are not listed, is there a place those are listed)

Hope I could help

[Heather] Yes, funny ones that have been gathered into hacker lore can be found in The Jargon File:

http://www.tuxedo.org/jargon

...although, oddly enough, this one isn't in there. We'll have to fix that!

Unable to Install Linux

From N P

Answered By Ben Okopnik

I am trying to install RH 6.2 on the WD 12.3GB drive. However, it hangs during the installation (after the partitions are formatted and progress dialogs starts).

[Ben] If you're using the graphical install, I suggest that you do not. All "freezing" problems that I've had with RedHat installations happened with GUI-based installations; all of them were resolved by going to the text-based one.

Well not quite true. If i don't select any packages (no X, compilers, multimedia, etc) to install, it installs fine.

[Ben] The program that installs RedHat is a huge, complicated thing that goes into weird contortions once in a while. If you simply cannot manage to install a full system by using it, install the basic system and whatever packages are necessary to dial up and do FTP (those should actually be a part of the basic system, but I'm not certain), and download a copy of 'rpmfind' <http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpmfind/rpmfind.html>;. This program will connect to an "RPM server" and download whatever packages you specify, automatically resolving dependencies in the process. It's a not-quite-as- powerful knockoff of Debian's 'apt' tool, but is actually reasonably mature and useful.

Another option is to try installing another distro; I'm a real Debian zealot, myself. One of the many reasons that I really like it is that something like the above procedure is already one of the standard installation options: the base system install takes 5-10 minutes, you tell 'apt' which of the many available servers you want to use, and walk away. 'apt' can use FTP, HTTP, local CDs, or packages right off the HD - and you can mix-and-match sources however you like. Dependency problems? What are those? <grin>

When the installation hangs there is no response to any keypress and it doesn't hang at the same part of the installation i.e. at the beginning (just starting), middle, or end (seconds to go).

[Ben] Hm. Have you run a good memory test on the machine? There are plenty of tools available, but my favorites are the old DOS "burn-in" tool and Linux's "memtest86" (interestingly enough, "memtest86" doesn't require Linux: it is a bootable image that can be run from a floppy!) "memtest86" is a part of the "hwtools" package, at least under Debian. Run either one of them for a minimum of 24 hours.

DNS and telnet

From crabe

Answered By Mike Orr

Hi, How do you get telnet working on your own machine as referred to in the DNS HOWTO, i.e telnetting at 127.0.0.1 ? I got telnet working to reach my ISP but never got around telnetting 127.0.0.1. So I gave up DNS. I have looked around all the HOWTOs available, and perhaps it's too simple for mentionning. I am running LinuxPPC2000. Thanks for any answer.

[Mike] Are you trying to do a standard telnet ("telnet 127.0.0.1") or telnet to another port ("telnet 127.0.0.1 53" would be a DNS query)? Here are a few possibilities:

1. Nobody is listening on the telnet port. If so, you'll get an immediate "connection refused" error. Telnetd is normally started from inetd. Uncomment the telnet line in /etc/inetd.conf and "killall -HUP inetd".
2. Your loopback devide is not configured. What happens when you run "ping 127.0.0.1"? If you get no response, do "ifconfig". There should be a stanza for device "lo". If not, run "ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1" and/or "ifconfig 127.0.0.1 up". (If you're still running kernel 2.0.x, follow that with "route add -net 127.0.0.0"). Then look at your network startup scripts to see why it isn't being activated by default.
3. Inetd runs telnet through a tcpd wrapper for security, and you're failing the tcpd check. This would cause the connection to do nothing (at least nothing visible) and then disconnect after a couple seconds. See "man tcpd" and "man 5 hosts_access".
4. You are telnetting to port 53 and your nameserver is not running. If so, you'd get a "connection refused" error. If you installed named (bind), find out why it isn't running.

The TAG security hawks will send a follow-up if I don't also mention that telnet is a security risk bla bla bla because it doesn't encrypt your password or your data. Think twice before running telnetd, and think a third time before allowing tcpd to allow telnet connections from outside your local network.

Help on LILO stopping at LI

From Alessio Frenquelli

Answered By Heather Stern

Hello,
I start thanking you for any help ... I am stuck at this stage, I am not a GURU on LINUX and I cannot overcome the problem.

Therefore I cannot really point to what has been changed or went wrong.

Under the Internet I found many, many errors entries pointing to LILO not being able to load in a disk that is above the 1024 cylinders

[Heather] Yes, it used to be LILO's biggest bug, though not its loudest (that one is people using it wrong and then wailing what are they going to do now that their MBR is mangled).

But ever since the new version those are old messages. The normal solution until it came out, was to create a tiny /boot near the beginning of the free space - even most dual booters could manage to slip a 20 Mb partition below the boundary. This works because on the kernel and bootmap needs to be below the line; once the kernel is loaded you are no longer working with real mode BIOS issues at all, you are fully in protected mode and can access everything the kernel is built for.

In my case LILO always worked so far, and I did not surely changed the disk size, done any repartitioning under Windows NT nor under Linux.

Under Windows, I have run Program => PartitionMagic =>PartitionInfo and I am attaching the output of the command to this email in case you need to see in details my machine's partitioning.

[] So you normally use partition magic for your dual boot menu, I'm guessing. If so, that is what is presently in your MBR, and would be overwritten (***warning warning danger will robinson*** or at least look real carefully that you've set up stanzas for NT also first!) if you change boot = /dev/hda

ENVIRONMENT

Dual bootable Laptop, Toshiba Tecra 8100; one partition is Windows NT workstation, the other is Linux RedHat 6.1.

PROBLEM

Linux 6.1 LILO does not longer boot properly. Just stop at the word "LI".

SOME TROUBLESHOOTING INFO

When running : << /sbin/lilo >> I got messages:

[root@afrenquelli /etc]# lilo
Warning: device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cylinder limit
Warning: device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cylinder limit
Warning: device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cylinder limit
Warning: device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cylinder limit
Added linux *
[root@afrenquelli /etc]#

[Heather] You used to get this before, or you now have a bigger disk than you used to?

By the way, Redhat 6.1 is a bit old, and lilo itself was updated last year so that 1024 cylinder issues are not a problem for it. (You'll also want to keep up to date on RH security updates, not quite as drastic as upgrading the system entirely.)

With the newer version, you can add the keyword


LBA32

into the top of your /etc/lilo.conf and it would use a different method to know where things are on the disk.

Being a boot loader, it's critical for lilo to know precisely where the kernel resides on your drive. Moving your kernel file (even if you then moved it back) or your system maps is a good reason to run /sbin/lilo.

Some machine's characteristics:

[root@afrenquelli /tmp]# df -k
Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7              1510032   1201268    232056  84% 	/
/dev/hda5                23302      2648     19451  12% 	/boot

[Heather] No relation. Lilo puts its bits into the Master Boot Record, which is not shown here. If ordered to, it could also use the superblock but, that is also not shown here, as it's reserved space for the filesystem driver.

[root@afrenquelli /etc]# lilo
Warning: device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cylinder limit.
   Use of the 'lba32' option may help on newer (EDD BIOS) systems.
Fatal: sector 19926490 too large for linear mode (try 'lba32' instead)

------------------------------------- file /etc/lilo.conf contains

boot=/dev/hda7

[Heather] This says put it in the superblock of the 7 partition ... your /

Most people would have it in the MBR ... /dev/hda with no number. Do you have an NT boot menu pointing you into Linux? Because I also notice that you don't have a chain loader stanza, to ask the item below to offer you your NT boot setup.

map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
vga=791

[Heather] a nice framebuffer text mode

linear

[Heather] "this is a big disk"

default=linux
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
        label=linux
        initrd=/boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
        read-only
        root=/dev/hda7

[Heather] The stock redhat kernel, I see.

I did not "fiddle" with Linux at all before this error appeared !

[Heather] WHat do you normally use Linux for?

So , I changed in /etc/lilo.conf the value "linear" with "lba32", and then /sbin/lilo runs fine with :

c[root@afrenquelli /etc]# lilo -v
LILO version 21.6-1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Linux Real Mode Interface library Copyright (C) 1998 Josh Vanderhoof
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2000 John Coffman
Released 16-Dec-2000 and compiled at 17:04:30 on Jan  9 2001.

Reading boot sector from /dev/hda7
Merging with /boot/boot.b
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
Added linux *
/boot/boot.0307 exists - no backup copy made.
Writing boot sector.

At this stage I "REALLY" hoped that the problem went away, but I still get only "LI" at boot time, I can only use the boot diskette to get into Linux.

ATTEMPTS TO SOLVE IT ===================

Thinking that the latest version of LILO "could" have fixed this problem, I have downloaded LILO 21.6.1-1 from http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/contrib/libc6/i386/lilo-21.6.1-1.i386.html

I have then upgraded my LILO with : "rpm -Uhv <nomefile>.rpm"

[Heather] Good deal! Yay!

You should also keep up to date on RedHat security updates for RH 6.1. (Not directly related to this, just a good idea)

Any other recent installs or upgrades?

The upgrade completed fine, and then when I try to run /sbin/lilo I got:

[root@afrenquelli /etc]# lilo
Warning: device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cylinder limit.
   Use of the 'lba32' option may help on newer (EDD BIOS) systems.
Fatal: sector 19926490 too large for linear mode (try 'lba32' instead)

[Heather] Even better, I'm glad they provide useful error messages ... that tell you what to do about an error.

So , I changed in /etc/lilo.conf the value "linear" with "lba32", and then /sbin/lilo runs fine with :

c[root@afrenquelli /etc]# lilo -v
LILO version 21.6-1, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger
Linux Real Mode Interface library Copyright (C) 1998 Josh Vanderhoof
Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2000 John Coffman
Released 16-Dec-2000 and compiled at 17:04:30 on Jan  9 2001.

Reading boot sector from /dev/hda7
Merging with /boot/boot.b
Boot image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.2.12-20
Mapping RAM disk /boot/initrd-2.2.12-20.img
Added linux *
/boot/boot.0307 exists - no backup copy made.
Writing boot sector.

At this stage I "REALLY" hoped that the problem went away, but I still get only "LI" at boot time, I can only use the boot diskette to get into Linux.

[Heather] That's weird

Maybe you need to take the linear or lba32 mark out ??

WHAT'S NEXT ?

If I could avoid to rebuild the LINUX partition would be GREATLY appreciated, since I am not a Linux expert and I would need some guidance also lots of other software is installed and I would like to avoid to reinstall the all lot !

[Heather] Although I'd like to note at this time that making sure your backups of your personal data on both OS setups are in current state, and good working condition... and not stored on the same disk. Tapes or a CD-R or a stack of ZIP cartridges maybe.

Could I just de-install LILO and re-install LILO ?

[Heather] should be able to. lilo -u to put the backup bits from /boot/boot.0307 back into the superblock /dev/hda7 (where it hopefully came from). If it whines abotu timestamps, lilo -U insists.

Then, you should be able to run lilo again to install it as a fresher instance.

Or should I add something into the /etc/lilo.conf and try to run "lilo" again ?

Could I somehow just rebuild the "booting" portion of the Linux, and if so, could you please provide detailed instructions on how to do it ?

[Heather] lilo has actually very excellent documentation that comes with it... much finer than many application packages in fact. If you run 'locate lilo' a bunch of things will scroll by, and several be from the doc directory tree somewhere on your disk. I'm guessing /usr/doc/lilo- (some version number) but I'm not near a RedHat system right now to look. Anyways on my SuSE system it's in /usr/doc/packages/lilo ... I have some dvi files (readable or printable by LaTeX tools) and some compressed postscript files (but ghostview ... the command gv ... is glad to show these to me).

The README, however, is the right place to start, because unlike most readme files around here (which can be summarized "so this is the foo program, I created it because bla bla. It's under the GPL/artistic/whatever license, see COPYING. If there are any bugs (hope not) get in contact with me at ...") it has some serious data in it. Consider it your quickstart guide to a working LILO.

You've already done a number of the obvious things, so, let us know if the uninstall/reinstall trick works, and if that readme isn't helpful to you we may be able to translate it to plainer english.

Kind regards,
alessio

[Heather] Our best hopes for your system, Alessio. We'd really like to hear back what fixed it, if you manage to solve it.

[Ben] Ah - an opportunity to shill for one of my scripts!

Here's where my "doc" script would come in really handy: all you'd have to do is type something like "doc lil", and it would give you a numbered list of all the subdirectories in your "doc" directory that start with 'lil'. Typing that number enters the directory and shows you a numbered file list; typing one of those numbers displays the file, no matter what its format is. When you exit the viewer, it shows you the list again, and gives you a chance to "fish around" in subdirectories and other files.

I know I sent it into LG as a 2-cent tip quite a while ago, but I believe I've made a few improvements since then, so here it is:

See attached doc.bash.txt

Heather,
thank you for your complete and prompt reply.

I will provide here some answers from the queries that you had. At this stage it seems that the problem is caused by one of our product, that I have recently installed under Linux. After reporting the LI problem to our support team, I received a reply where they state that this product ast times seems to affect LILO, and to cause the problem that I have described to you.

I am still awaiting from our support team, if they know how to fix the problem of LILO.

And now to your questions:

[Heather] Any recent changes? The next L should represent finding the second stage loader so the kernel can get going. These could be disk-ish things like you caught a virus and successfully cleaned it out, had a hard crash and needed to reboot, etc

Yes, I have installed a new Micromuse Package under LINUX. After the installation I rebooted few times without problem, but then one day, LI started to happen.

 Warning: device 0x0305 exceeds 1024 cylinder limit

[Heather] You used to get this before, or you now have a bigger disk than you used to?

No changes on disk size, or disk partitioning under Linux or under NT. I never run /sbin/lilo before , so I cannot tell you if this was a problem. But LILO always worked before.

I did not "fiddle" with Linux at all before this error appeared !

[Heather] WHat do you normally use Linux for?

I use Linux to run Micromuse products, and as I said, the problem started to happen since I installed one of our package. Other people installed it on their laptop, but they did not report the error. Support told me that at times this product is know to cause some problem with LILO, but they are not too sure.

[Heather] That's weird
Maybe you need to take the linear or lba32 mark *out* ??

You mean, remove linear or lba32 from lilo.conf and try to run lilo again ? I will try this.

[Heather] Then, you should be able to run lilo again to install it as a fresher instance.

So I should just run :

1. lilo -u or lilo -U
2. Then how do I re-install LILO ? Just running /sbin/lilo or do I need to download the LILO package from somewhere and the install it with "rpm -Uhv .rpm" or something similar ?

Thank you for your help once again, I will keep you posted !
ciao, alessio

Heather,

here is how I got this problem fixed with the help of the support personnel in our company

Thank you once again for your support !!!

Support adviced me that the following recovery procedure for LILO problems is to be used for Laptop that have dual boot partition, NT & Linux, when the me